i
monuments threaten me
the past imposing its hard cold hand upon the future
i would rather see trees
and bruise my bare feet on pebbles
than wrap them out of the dust

my eyes behold the artefacts of fear
clustered like mushrooms crumbling from their first moment
i taste their decay as i breathe
and then i know exile

so i flee
the citadel conclusions of the human mind
that so tenuously command contemporary reality
knowing i am a true born son
and they bastards

within this collage of chaos
i hear the tongues of autumn and spring
in the unmistakable rauccour of birth
and while i die and am born each day
each hour
there are they who have chosen their season
oblivious to the subtle balance of the single cycle

but i have watched the face of the moon
through branches rising white and brilliant
as a sphere of stars
i have watched the sun spread infinity over the sea
i have drowned in tears and in light
and i have arisen again

i cannot return
for i have known wonders greater than the eye can witness
in the same breath i have been ravaged by fear
the cellular disintegration is identical
death, also, comes in passing

ii
i have been shaped by every moment of my breath
in some i have found guidance
the path is bathed with light
where i stray from it i stumble
and must open my eyes to see the way

i shall never return
for my kingdom is another
present and eternal
it has not monument nor motto
no sign and no limit
and while it is my home
i play here awhile until my return
each atom become light

my heart has courted truth
and i have bathed naked in cascades of light
passed deaths portrals unafraid
i am no longer free to choose
but in my fealty rests a greater freedom

so much for innocence, ignorance
children are flowers, but what of the fruit?
the roots of truth drive their light through my fingers
i have my destination
infinite grace
i am doomed to an eternity of perfection

1979
northumbria